Several studies explored the challenges involved in adopting sustainable practices in the construction industry from the perspective of different stakeholders, mainly developers, architects, consultants, and contractors. These challenges include financial constraints, lack of awareness, human resource issues, government policies, and market dynamics. However, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis and thematic classification of these barriers covering different aspects of sustainable construction is scarce owing to the fragmented nature of the literature. The objectives of the study are—(1). To examine the literature on barriers to incorporating sustainable practices in building construction, operation and demolition (2). To provide a thematic classification of the barriers (3). To identify research gaps and suggest avenues for further research. The articles were retrieved from the Scopus database and refined using PRISMA guidelines. 221 studies were included in the bibliometric analysis. Biblioshiny was used to identify the publication trends, most relevant countries, authors, publications, and highly cited articles. Furthermore, 30 empirical studies were analysed using NVivo 12 software to classify the barriers into the following themes: finance-related, attitude and behaviour-related, knowledge and awareness-related, government-related and market-related. The sub-themes cover various issues related to the development of sustainable buildings: prefabrication, Building Information Modelling, Cloud Computing, procurement of sustainable materials, energy management, managing sustainable projects and construction and demolition waste management. These comprehensive insights could help practitioners and policymakers develop strategies to drive the construction industry towards achieving its sustainability goals.